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All she had to do was open her hand It was a good long ways down to an ugly, bone-crunching impact on the busy freeway below Alice didn&039;t iven the power balance, that there was nothing she could do that wouldn&039;t kill the hostage caught in theon?" I asked

"Who&039;s Alice?" Cherise asked, craning her neck She&039;d ventured over to stand next to uy&039;s named Alice? Hope it&039;s his last nao back to the car!" I practically yelled it at her She winced and danced backward, holding up her hands in surrender

This was out of control, and it was very, very dangerous Prada and Alice couldn&039;t unleash anything like a full-scale Djinn war here; there ay toodown this whole bridge There was no way I could protect against that

"This isn&039;t your fight," Alice said to me Her attention was riveted on Prada, on the"Leave You&039;ll draw their attention if you interfere"

"Me? Wait their attention? Who are you talking about? Alice, talk to ?"

I could feel Cherise looking ata conversation with thin air I couldn&039;t worry about that right now

"Go!" Alice said sharply, and I felt a sudden push on the aetheric She meant business "I can&039;t protect you Stay away fro the sound of this less and less "Not until I knohat&039;s going on with you guys"

She , because so far as I&039;d ever noticed, Alice in Wonderland hadn&039;t been big on growling like a rabid anirowl broke off as if somebody had pulled the switch on it, and she swiveled away froeneral area "Too late," she said "They&039;re here"

As I turned, I saw the other Djinn Four of theic points in the crowd She was outnumbered Probably not outclassed, but still

"You have to stop," Alice said, turning back to Prada "He&039;ll forgive you for what you&039;ve done, but you must stop now No more"

Prada sank her flawlessly polished talons deeper into the Warden&039;s left arain He teetered desperately, struggling to stay alive

I could hear his gasps even over the shouts of the onlookers, trying to talk hi under the assu on his own Could save himself

I knew better

Aroundin Slowly They seemed to be either cautious about Alice&039;s abilities, or enjoying themselves Maybe both

This didn&039;t hts into the human world like this, not so publicly And a Warden trapped in the ers no, this wasn&039;t good at all Things were shifting I could feel that, even if I didn&039;t knohy it was happening

Prada was ai a cold, hard, inhuman smile at Alice

"You should run, little one," she purred "I pro," Alice said "You started the fight You should be prepared to carry it all the way"

"I am"

"Then leave the man out of it He doesn&039;t ave her a contemptuous look The Warden&039;s feet slipped, and he flailed for balance, anchored by Prada&039;s ruthless grip The crowd of spectators who&039;d gathered gasped A trucker leaned out the door of his semi, open-mouthed

I didn&039;t have a lot of ti; the cops would be here soon, and God only knehat that would ether and watched Wind ruffled her cornsilk-smooth hair, fluttered the sky blue dress and white pinafore She was straight out of Lewis Carroll, but when I focused on the adult strength in that child&039;s face, I could see so out of the Looking Glass

Prada had ry That was probably a really, really stupid onna jump," Cherise murmured softly from behind me "Oh my God Oh my God"

The four other Djinn-had to be allies of Prada-were stalking closer Alice suddenlyout with an explosive flare of power It hit Prada, looped around her, and atte and onto the relative safety of the bridge, but it backfired Prada, straining to counter it, nearly went over instead Alice immediately dropped the attack when the Warden screamed in panic

With all the power she had, she was helpless to do anything without endangering innocent lives She needed help

I had no idea whether Alice was on the right or wrong side in this, but at least she wasn&039;t the one holding a guy over a three-story drop

I consideredrelatively risky Djinn are, essentially, vapor in their atoive theured that Prada wastrue hu the job, for her purposes She didn&039;t need the actual reality

All I needed to do was hit her frorip on the guy she was holding, and at the sae hiain

Siant And a hell of a lot better than waiting for the Djinn Deathmatch to turn up a winner

I closed my eyes, took a fast, deep breath, and reached out for control of the air around asped and reached farther, stretched Felt a faint stirring coh Oh ed, iht ainst a flood tide, and when I arrived everything was gray, dimmed, distant Gray as ash

It was like what had happened to me over breakfast with Sarah and Eamon, only far worse

I buckled down and went deep, all the way deep, into reserves I hadn&039;t called on since I&039;d survived the Dey out of my cells to fire the furnace of power inside Pulled every scrap of power I had and threw it into thethe wind but I couldn&039;t control it It would be worse than useless, it would hit with the force of a tornado and swirl uncontrollably, throw the ile human body onto the concrete and that would beShe snarled and extended her free hand toward , and it was d□jr vu all over again

I could feel her reaching intoheart She wouldn&039;t even have to work hard to killthe electrical ih nerves, just a quick jolt

"David!" I yelped I didn&039;t mean to; I knew better, da to die because I wasn&039;t strong enough

"David? Where?" Cherise, distracted from the drauy up on the rail? That&039;s not David, is-"

I felt the war to a white-hot snap, and David came fro around hi faster than hu the action even glanced at him To their eyes, he didn&039;t even exist

The other four Djinn in the crowd froze, staring And as one, took a step backward

Prada hissed and instantly transferred her attack to hiht, but only because he wanted to get a good, hard look at her He looked tired, so horribly tired, but he disent shake of his head He looked at the le colance

I wondered, not for the first time, what Djinn sahen they studied a scene like that The surface? The glowing furious tangle of huies we exerted, even unconsciously, on the world around us?

Whatever it was, it couldn&039;t have been pretty I saw faint lines groove themselves around his mouth and eyes

His eyes turned to hot,ready for battle He looked at Prada, who returned the glance with level cal this?" he asked